“Which box should I check?” The 17 -year -old Junior was
filling out college applications.
Straight- A student. Student
Council President. Salutatorian.
Community Service Hours for wonderful causes and a delight to have in class.
Which box. White or
Hispanic. Which box would get her into
the best school? Which box might get her
a scholarship? Which box should she
play... it was like betting in Vegas...
There was no Jewish box.
But it wasn’t too long ago that universities had Jewish quotas,
especially for Medical School Admissions. There certainly was no box for a girl
whose family of Sephardic Jews had left Turkey for Greece... only to escape to
Cuba during World War II. In Florida, this
made her a “Jewban”... a rare breed
of Jew only found on Miami’s South Beach, and there was no box for that
either. She wasn’t White. She wasn’t Hispanic. She was Jewish, which doesn’t seem to be a
“race” unless you are playing the race card, as in the “Jewish Race” a.k.a.
“Anti-Semitism.
As a white Jewish girl from Miami with a straight A average,
she was just one more applicant. But as
an Hispanic Refugee from Cuba with a straight A average... she became extremely
“hot” in the world of top 10 university freshman class profiles.
I could only offer one suggestion. Check Hispanic.
Shalom,
Rabbi Rose Lyn
Jacob
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